


The Mad King

by NyxWordsmith



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Fantasy AU, Fantasy Violence, Kidnapping, M/M, Swearing, Vampire AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 17:17:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17512694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxWordsmith/pseuds/NyxWordsmith
Summary: It was bad enough that Prince Patton was on the run with his magic advisor, Logan, and a stablehand that had refused to leave, Roman...but now there were two different parties chasing him? And one of them was a group of vampires? What could they possibly want with a prince who couldn't even take the throne.





	The Mad King

The sky above was dark, littered with flashes of lightning, rumbling as it threatened to open up with rain. It felt like his life was a never-ending cycle of rainy days, that the sun had died the day his parents-

Nope, no time to think about that. The targets. Focus on the targets.

He took a deep breath, sinking further into his patched cloak and shrugging it up around him. Slouch but look big. Unassuming but intimidating. One foot in front of the other, scanning the bodies around him for his target.

With his hood pulled over his head, he was practically invisible, a black and purple shadow amidst the flowing river of bodies around him.

A festival, if Virgil remembered correctly. Some kind of celebration for a king long dead. It made little sense to him now, nearly a man, but as a child...he was sure he would be as awestruck as the children around him.

They were supposed to be somewhere ahead...three of them if he recalled correctly. His brother had been pretty certain, even if Virgil hadn’t been, giving out some suspiciously detailed descriptions.

Still, this was Dee he was talking about here. The man knew what he was doing. And he certainly had enough connections to get that kind of description.

He sighed as he saw a glimpse of the first one. A tall, thin man with small, square glasses and a small book in his hand. He was standing, as though waiting for someone as he read, wearing a fairly simple, long overcoat over a navy blue shirt. The brightest thing about him was a pastel blue tie...Virgil would have probably missed him if he hadn’t been told to look out for the bright magical scarring on the side of his face.

Great, swirling lines of pale blue magic wound over his cheekbone and around his eye, covering nearly the left half of his face. It glowed, like a small night light on a gloomy rainy day and Virgil was awestruck for a moment.

“Logan!”

He snapped his book closed, turning to the new voice. A shorter man trotted up, beaming brightly with shining eyes behind much larger, circular glasses. His face was peppered with freckles and Virgil blinked from the brightness of his smile alone.

“You are a very convincing commoner.” Logan spoke simply, looking behind the child to the older man coming up behind him.

His regalia was bright and flashy,  _ far _ too flashy to be all that convincing. A perfect white, a perfect red, glittering gold and two large crests on his shoulders. Virgil thought to send a thought to his brother,  _ ‘The child is the noble _ .’

‘ _ Stick to the plan _ .’

Virgil watched as they gathered up, moving through the crowd slowly. At a distance, keeping his cloak close, Virgil watched and followed. They were muted for a group at the a festival, save for the child, who was eagerly pointing out  _ everything _ .

The ‘noble’ was doing his best, hands clasped behind his back, standing too straight, chin too high. Virgil had to give him props though. He was doing his best.

The child on the other hand, couldn’t seem to shake it. He spoke too properly, kept his movements fluid and small...Why did Dee want the imposter then?

Virgil shook his head. No, he would worry about that when this was over. Right now, he just had to follow through. He knew his brother well enough to know there was probably someone else in the mix here, another working part that Virgil didn’t know. Someone else preparing to snap a trap.

For all he knew, Virgil was playing a tiny part in a bigger game.

‘ _ On my signal _ .’

Virgil swallowed, keeping his cloak clasped tight, watching closely.

‘ _ Now. _ ’

A man leapt out from an alley before the scholar, grabbing fiercely onto his arm. The commotion that started made it difficult to hear what exactly was happening, but Virgil watched the ‘noble’ grab the stunned boy.

“Go!” the scholar shouted, looking to the stranger on his arm, “Hey, I said stop!”

‘ _ Don’t engage yet. _ ’ Dee murmured, ‘ _ Follow _ .’

‘ _ The boy isn’t a threat. _ ’ Virgil answered, following closely but staying out of their line of sight. There was already someone else chasing too close, directly behind them.

‘ _ I am aware. _ ’ he answered with a soft chuckle, ‘ _ You stay on the imposter _ .’

Virgil nodded, keeping his distance until the noble suddenly darted into an alley. He sensed orders were being spat to the other pawn in the game, but he couldn’t quite hear them.

He used some crates to scale the side of a building, panting as he trotted to the alley, looking down and spotting the ‘noble’ and the boy sprinting through the darkness.

‘ _ Stay out of sight. Out of the dark _ .’

‘ _ Too many know me down there… _ ’ he hummed as he kept close to his targets from the rooftops, dodging tannery’s and drying laundry, ‘ _ Is there a reason for the cat and mouse? _ ’

A soft and familiar chuckle brought a smile to Virgil’s face.

‘ _ A mind game then. Okay. _ ’ Virgil huffed, ‘ _ You know I like this game. _ ’

Another chuckled, ‘ _ I do. But I need you to focus _ .’

Virgil nodded firmly, looking back down and following the two charges, ‘ _ Your other man is losing them. _ ’

‘ _ Good. _ ’

Virgil didn’t question as he followed, leaping the distance between buildings and smirking as the imposter lead the young boy into a dead end.

‘ _ Hold. _ ’

Virgil crouched on a rooftop, trying to steady his breathing as he watched. The ‘noble’ spun from the high wall to the entrance he’d just sprinted through. He was panicking.

“Roman?” the young boy squeaked, “What do we do?”

Virgil watched as the imposter swallowed a whimper, “You hide.” he answered, shoving the smaller boy toward a group of crates and netting.

“Roman-?!”

“Patton, please!” the imposter begged, pushing him down. Virgil could hear tears in his throat, “Please, they can’t find you. Please, just stay here and stay quiet, please.”

‘ _ Us? _ ’ Virgil asked.

‘ _ The others. _ ’

Virgil nodded as he watched Roman slip the netting over the small noble.

“It’s itchy…” he whimpered.

“Shhh, Patton.” Roman took a few steps back, “He’ll be here soon-”

Just as he predicted, the man finally came around the corner. A murmur of his brother’s orders and a sword was drawn. Virgil clicked as Dee did. A subpar weapon by any means, but it seemed to do the job, spooking the imposter into drawing his own weapon.

‘ _ A training sword? _ ’ Virgil frowned, ‘ _ Oh, this poor kid. _ ’

‘ _ He’s like your age, Virgil. _ ’

‘ _You’re such a bitch_ _.’ _

Dee laughed as Virgil watched the stranger approaching waving his sword at the noble. Virgil could see him thinking, his footing uneven as his mind wandered elsewhere.

‘ _ He’s going to run. _ ’

Dee hummed, clearly trying to think. There was a purpose to this, Virgil knew it, he just didn’t understand it yet. Virgil’s head snapped to the sound of footfalls behind him, his eyes widening when he saw a pair of dark shades. He sipped on a straw, saluting Virgil as he walked closer.

‘ _ Remy’s here. _ ’

Virgil heard murmuring as the tall elf crouched beside Virgil, sipping nonchalantly on his drink. His expression never changed, until something caught his interest and his eyebrow arched up a little.

‘ _ Stay on the imposter. _ ’

‘ _ You still want him? _ ’

He heard a darker chuckle, ‘ _ As far as he’s concerned,  _ _ you _ _ want him _ .’

‘ _ Dee _ .’

‘ _ He’s unimportant. Do whatever you want with him once you have him. Just make sure you take him elsewhere. _ ’

Virgil rolled his eyes and sighed, turning his attention back to the stand-off as Roman circled to the gap in the alley. The pawn...bandit, whatever, down below should have known better than  _ that _ at least but...then again, he was no professional.

Remy put his cup aside, throwing his long and thin legs over the edge of the building. With a smile, he leaned over and kissed Virgil’s forehead. His fingers moved swiftly, ‘ _ You be careful, yeah? _ ’

Virgil nodded back to his brother, winking back and Remy’s grin widened, revealing two very sharp fangs.

‘ _ Give ‘im hell. _ ’

As Roman turned to bolt, feet crunching over the gravel, the bandit shouted, “Hey!”

Virgil darted along the rooftop, following Roman, hearing Remy slip off the edge of the rooftop.

Remy landed on his feet behind the bandit, tossing his cup away as the bandit turned, leaning back to look up at the tall man. He grinned down at the bandit, “Who the fuck are you?!”

‘ _ Thanks for your service _ .’ Remy and Virgil heard Dee’s voice and the bandit paled.

Remy leaned on one leg, pulling a blade from a sheath on his chest and twirled it. The blade caught light, shining off an inscription and the bandit snarled.

“Wait...wait-”

Remy lunged forward, his blade easily slicing through the bandits and the man yelped as he stumbled back. Remy’s grin didn’t vanish as he stood straight, looming over the bandit, pushing his shades into his hair.

Grey eyes met the bandits, his muscles locking in place and a low, dangerous chuckle escaped Remy. He leaned close, breathing over the bandit’s ear, before thrusting the blade in deep.

The bandit did nothing more than gasp and choke on air, eyes wide and pleading as Remy leaned back. He shrugged, fingers moving, ‘ _ No hard feelings, yeah? _ ’ before he jerked the blade back out and cleaning it on the bandit’s shirt.

The spell broke on the bandit as Remy pulled his shades back down, turning away and sheathing his blade. He moved toward the crates and netting, pulling it up to find the terrified little noble.

 

* * *

Virgil hopped buildings, following Roman as his pace gradually slowed and then he stopped altogether, collapsing against a wall. He really did want to chase for longer, see how far he could push the imposter noble, but there was a point to all of this. Surely.

He hopped off, his heavy boots hitting the ground hard. Roman panted, crimson eyes meeting Virgil’s as he tried to keep a hold on his weapon, “Who are you? Back off-”

“Calm down, or I’ll give you a reason to be scared.” Virgil snapped, and Roman huffed as he tried to catch his breath.

Smaller than Roman by an inch and considerably thinner, the imposter obviously thought he could get past him. “I’m out of here.”

He tried to charge past Virgil, but the darkness bolstered him, hand catching him by his regalia and shoving him back against the wall of the alley.

“Oh, I don’t  _ think _ so.” Virgil purred, smiling as the imposter noble struggled, dropping his sword. He tried to pull Virgil’s hand from his regalia, but Virgil pushed him up a little ways off his feet, “Is that better?”

Roman grumbled, “Let go of me!” he cried, “I am-”

“ _ Hardly _ nobility.” Virgil answered coolly, twisting his hand in Roman’s regalia, “You’re as easy to spot if you were wearing a cardboard crown.” Roman froze as Virgil pulled him closer, “But I like you.”

“What?” he squeaked.

Virgil moved closer, letting Roman drift down to his feet, “I like you.” he answered, “You smell of potential. Strength. Integrity.” he hummed, “I like that.”

Roman stared at him, “Smell like-”

Virgil grinned, revealing sharp fangs and Roman paled, “Oh yes.” he answered softly, “But like I said. I like you.” Roman’s eyes were wide and terrified, starting to get glassy, “And I know you’re not the noble we’re after.”

“S-so-”

“So, that means you’re all mine.”

Roman squeaked, “Wha-what?”

Virgil chuckled softly, “You’re  _ mine _ .” he answered, tracing a finger down Roman’s cheek, “And I think I’m going to have a  _ lot _ of fun with you.”

“Yours? Yours how? I don’t-”

Virgil placed his fingertip on Roman’s lip, “Shh…” he whispered, hearing footfalls, “Let’s get you out of this silly get up, hm?” Roman squeaked, struggling uselessly until the regalia hit the dust with a soft ‘ _ fump _ ’, “There we go, my little prince, better?”

“I’m no prince-”

“Hush.” Virgil whispered, the human meeting his eyes again. They were wet and scared, despair already filling the crimson orbs staring up at him, “You will be.” he answered softly.

As footfalls stepped out the end of the alley, Virgil spun them so Roman’s back was pinned to his chest, hand tightly gripping his chin and his other hand pinning Roman’s hand up between his shoulderblades.

The scholar was glaring darkly from the end of the alley, “Vampires...of course.”

“Logan-!”

“Roman, calm yourself.” Logan spoke coolly, even as the imposter noble whimpered. Virgil leaned close to his ear, smiling at Logan as he breathed over the sensitive skin, “Where is Patton?”

“He doesn’t care for you.” Virgil whispered, “Don’t you see?”

“B-but-”

“Look at him.” Virgil whispered, his grip softening on Roman’s face, “He asks for Patton, but not if you’re okay?” he asked, stroking Roman’s jawline, “You’re a pawn. A tool.” Roman whimpered, “I want you to be more than that-”

“No.” Roman squeaked, tears falling from his eyes. Logan was speaking, but Virgil wasn’t listening, “I just wanna go home...I don’t want-”

Virgil chuckled softly, “Your home’s with me now.” he whispered and Roman whimpered, “Time to say goodbye.”

Roman shuddered, “Logan! He’s-”

Dark magic pulsed around them, long ribbons of purple magic blinding Logan and pushing him back as Virgil held Roman closer.

“I’ll take good care of you.” he whispered, “My little prince Roman.” the magic wrapped tightly around them, “Bastard son of the Mad King.”

Logan looked up in horror, but they were already gone. How did he  _ know _ ?


End file.
